Democrats must make the case that government can be effective and good

Eighty-eight years ago, President Franklin Roosevelt stood before the American people in Philadelphia and warned of an economic aristocracy that sought not just to dominate our markets but our democracy. 

He spoke of those who amassed great wealth and then used that wealth to shape the laws of our nation and serve their own world view, rather than the public good. And he pledged that the government must serve the people, not the privileged few. 

That same challenge exists today, but now it is billionaires themselves taking over our government. They bankroll the campaigns, install their loyalists, and want to control the government so they can make the rules. They push for deep cuts to public education, including eliminating funding for decent schools and working-class neighborhoods to fund massive tax breaks for the investor class that we cannot afford. 

They fight to deregulate social media platforms to grow the market value of companies in my district, just as the railroad barons of the past fought against every piece of regulation to protect their profits. 

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They move fast and break things, treating our government like their own personal experiment, blind to the millions of Americans who rely on their services and why? Because they believe they’re entitled to rule. 

They see themselves as an aristocracy of talent, a select few, whose wealth and success make them the rightful decision makers for the rest of us. In their eyes, business entrepreneurs, hedge fund managers and tech tycoons are the engines of America’s prosperity, while working families are expected to accept whatever scrapes trickle down. 

They believe that democracy should cater to their vision, their profits and their power, no matter what the cost to society, they even refuse to accept what separates human beings from God, mortality itself.

We are in this moment because for decades Republicans have told us that government is bad. Democrats must have the courage to make the case that government is good and can work.

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That means standing up for decent schools in working-class neighborhoods that rely on federal funds. It means defending Pell Grants that help kids from lower-income families go to college and student loans that millions, like me, took out and repaid to finish our education. 

It means not hurting every American family with a special-needs kid who needs an IEP program and who depend on federal funding. It also means protecting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid so that every American can live with dignity and retire with economic security. 

We must ask ourselves, will we allow a handful of powerful interests to dictate the future of our economy, our jobs and our democracy, or will we reclaim the promise of an America where anyone who works hard can thrive? 

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That is our task in this generation, to rebuild an economy that works for the many, not just for the mighty, to invest in American production to empower workers to share in the wealth they create and ensure that people, not financial power, determine our nation’s course. 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt stood up to the economic royalists of his time. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

It is up to us to make good on the radical American belief that our genius lies in ordinary Americans defying a world history in which national glory belongs only to kings, oligarchs or politburos.

You see, America’s distinguishing excellence, unlike Russia or China, is our belief in the boundless potential of every citizen. Today, our government must stand up against the impersonal economic forces that have snatched away livelihoods from those working in factory towns and concentrated wealth into a few cities. 

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Our government must make economic independence possible for citizens so they can assert control over their destiny. Just as Franklin Delano Roosevelt stood up to the economic royalists of his time, we must stand up today to the unholy alliance of wealth and power, not out of resentment, but out of resolve, not to punish wealth, but to ensure that prosperity is built by and for the people who make this country run. 

That is our mission. This is our moment. And together, we will rise to meet it.

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